sister gruwell

 3 Months! Watching Woman's Conference We meet a lot of people every day. It’s kind of like our job J Sometimes I understand these people, sometimes I don’t. The first few week I often thought, “wow some of these people seem pretty crazy, but it must just be the language barrier”.  Now that this language barrier is disappearing, I’m coming to realize there are actually more crazy people here that I thought. One afternoon, this guy stopped us (which doesn’t happen often except for people who are crazy interested or just plain crazy). He explained that when he stares at the sun he can feel the glory of God.  He then demonstrated.  This guy stared at the sun, without blinking, for a good 30 seconds.  Like right at it. It was so bright; I was squinting just watching him stare directly at the sun.  Then he pulled out his Bible and read us a verse of two (I really don’t know how he could read) and he repeated this process 2 more times before we said we had to g

hello all! Maybe all my subject lines will have to do with Simon and Garfunkel songs. Let's just hope next week´s isn't "Homeward Bound." Unless we have a baptism and I'm talking about how our new convert is homeward bound to his heavenly home. Actually that would be great, let's pray for that.  The work is so good here and I am still loving every minute.  Sometimes to get to our lunches with the members we have to cross this huge bridge. I'll take a picture of it sometime. You take an elevator up one side, walk across this huge glass enclosure, and take an elevator back down to the bottom of the other side. It's easy, simple, and pretty. Usually The other sisters were with us and the four of us got into the elevator like usual. It let us out and we went to the bathroom. The water wasn't running so we left to find other ones. The part with the elevator and bathrooms is about a half floor below where the bridge part is. We walk up

óla! literally another week in paradise! Lots of meeting new people and teaching about the restoration this week, nothing new but all very good. I had kind of cough this week. It's the kind that makes you sound pretty bad but actually doesn't affect how you feel. Because of this I'd clear my through a lot which made people think I had something to say. Jokes on them because I didn't have anything to say and was usually a little lost in the conversation. I was definitely given more than my share of silence this week that I usually just filled with a smile. All is well.  Sometimes instead of lunch, the members give us money to eat out. It's way fun trying the restaurants here. Food is also crazy cheap here. I'm usually not (actually never) the type of person to take a picture of my food but all the food we got was only R$10 which is barely $3 USD. It's even more food that it looks like and it was so good. Rice, beans, two types of meat, these sweet po

Guess what? Still loving this missionary thing. Sister Patrini and I are both new to the area so we’ve mostly just been trying to find the people who are ready to hear the gospel.  You’ve probably heard it before, but everyone has gates around their houses he so instead of knocking on the door, we stand outside and clap.  I was already a pretty proficient clapper before the mission, but I’m definitely already better after these first two weeks. I am actually scared to find out what kind of clapping skills I will have at the end of this thing. Guess we will wait and see. Pdays are way fun. mostly we just go hang out on the beach and work on our farmer's tans, email our families, and clean our house (although for mopping we just take this wet and kind of dirty towel and put it on this stick and push it around the house haha). Our mission president also lets up sleep in on Pdays and we can watch Disney and church movies. Sister Patrini and I found this tourist map so we’re

My MTC days are over so I´m a real missionary now. My first area is Camboriú and it turns out I was called to paradise. We live in the city of Balneário. It´s a huge city on the beach and outside the city are these huge green hills. I´ll take more pictures next week but it looks like they could have filmed Lost here. Every morning we get to run barefoot on the beach for physical activity. I´m truly living a dream. The weather is perfect but it´s winter here so I´m in for a rough summer.  You know how Rio is famous for the Christ the Redeemer Statue? Well we have a big statue of Jesus on a hill too and ours is even better because Jesus shines a light on the city and changes colors.  My trainadora is Sister Patrini. She is so kind a patient; She doesn't speak English so my Portuguese has improved so much this week it's crazy.  In Brazil we eat lunch with the members instead of dinner. They are so nice and they make huge meals with so many different dishes and it´s a

Last week in the CTM! Crazy. I've been thinking about my time here, and a few different things have surprised me. I'm surprised with how hard Portuguese is. I knew it would be hard, but it didn't really hit me until a few days in. On the other hand, I'm surprised with how much Portuguese i do know. The gift of tongues doesn't make it easy, it makes it possible (I hear that phrase like every half hour but it's kinda true). The biggest surprise for me is how much fun we have here!  I thought it would be like 6 weeks of straight church, and we do learn a lot, but we also laugh so so so much.  the scripture I put on my mission plaque is Alma 31. 34-35 which reads (mom can you just find it for me haha) I've been thinking about this scripture a lot this week since i'll be a real missionary next week! I know that on my own, I would not be able to convert anyone (especially not if I was only speaking Portuguese). However, I know that with the Lord, I will